Wow - only a handful of these would make it onto my must-have list. Lord of the Flies would be tops - that was one of those books that affected me profoundly when I was young, and probably still would. (But... a rock opera?? Ewww... :))

The Color Purple would be there, too. And Chronicles of Narnia, in case I ever needed to read those for the thousandth time.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time was a great book. Fascinating and very touching. But it wouldn't make my can't-live-without list.

I was strongly affected by 1984, but I don't think I'd want to put myself through that again. :) Ditto The Bell Jar. And ditto The Handmaid's Tale. Actually, I don't think I finished Handmaid's Tale, it was just too grim. (I saw the movie, though, so maybe that's why I think I finished the book. :))

I thoroughly enjoyed The DaVinci Code - so fucking shoot me. (Not a must-have, though.)

There's very little here that I would be at all interested in, to tell the truth. I guess I should take it with a grain of salt - this is someone's list of books he/she can't live without (or, I guess, a voted-on list compiled by a group of people). It doesn't seem to have much relevance to what I would want to read, but that would probably be the case with most such lists.

I should read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, though.